What is that smell?

Every autumn a large number of beekeepers report stinky honey. The source of the smell is nectar, most probably from plants in the aster family, including goldenrod and small daisy-like flowers that grow in clusters.

When your bees start to dry this nectar into honey the smell can be overwhelming and somewhat startling. It’s just not the odor you expect from your sweet bees.

Although goldenrod, dandelion, and aster honeys are often not favorites, they aren’t terrible, and they taste nothing like the odor they give off. Nevertheless, many beekeepers prefer to let the bees keep the aster honey for themselves.

This actually works quite well since asters are largely fall-flowing plants. Beekeepers can harvest in early fall and then let the bees keep the fall honey for overwintering.

American foulbrood smells very different

Some beekeepers fear American foulbrood (AFB) when they smell aster nectar, but the odors are quite different. Aster nectar has been described as musty, musky, funky, rank, moldy, sour, and rancid. AFB has more of a dead animal smell . . . think rotting meat or fly-riddled carcass on the side of the road.

If you are uncertain, look at your capped brood. If your brood is healthy-looking you are probably smelling aster honey, but if you see shrunken brood caps, discoloration, holes in the caps, and the brood frames smell like death, then you need to test for AFB.

While Goldenrod smells awful during the gathering and drying by the bees….it is one of my MOST favorite tasting honey!!!! Very floral and a wonderful taste, though it crystallizes rather quickly. Goldenrod is wonderful for you as well. Many think “OH! ALLERGIES!!!” It’s actually the cure for them many times, it the Ragweed that is AWAYS close by. 🙂 I’m using Goldenrod honey to sweeten my fall Apple Butter ~~~ DELISH!!!!

What a relief to read this!!! I was so nervous with the smell next to our hives..I was pretty sure it was something sinister. Now I see it was those blue flowers around the eastern end of the house. A very different smell and quite puzzling. My wife thought it was the pollen. I am glad its not AFB. Thanks for sharing!

I purchased a jar of Ethiopian pure organic honey, and it’s darker in colour and smells awful. But the taste is wonderful! The texture is like caramel and smooth taste. But I can’t even down it with water cos the smell is awful.

I encountered a different kind of stinky honey today. I think it’s from fermented honey. Longish story short, I pulled off a deep of honey that had been sitting on top of a colony all winter and I found four frames that appeared to be sweating. Fully capped, dark, liquid honey, but wet on the outside — and stinking like a cheap tequila. If I was a honey bee stuck inside a wooden box, I’d get drunk just off the fumes from it. But I figured drunk bees are better than starving bees, so I gave the honey to some other colonies that were short on honey. This is my first time feeding bees what I can only guess is fermented honey. Do you think I did the right thing?

I can’t imagine that the honey under the caps had turned. Is it possible that the smell came from a few broken or uncapped cells? Or that mold was growing on the moisture that accumulated on the surface of the capped honey? Like slime mold? In any case, the answer is here: “One for the road: bees with a buzz.”

Uh, I hope it isn’t slime mold. It’s seems not unlikely now that you’ve put the thought in my head. I’ll check out the bees in a few days and see how they’re handling it. I don’t mind them getting a little light headed, but slime mold doesn’t sound good. Thanks.

We just pulled and extracted some of the stinkiest smelly honey we have had and it taste like it smells. My question will the smell or taste ever fade any to where it is edible? From what I have read it’s the musty, BO smell. I guess i just lost 2 gallons of honey. It is just frustrating because we lost all hives last year now back to 8 hives to have this to deal with. I guess it is always something to keep me on my toes.

It sounds like goldenrod or something similar. I don’t think the taste changes much over time, but some people like it. You could always sell itjust let folks have a taste first so they know what they’re getting. Also, you can cook with it. Better yet, save it for your bees for winter stores. They will certainly like it. Extracted honey can be put in a feeder instead of sugar syrup and is better for the bees. If it crystallizes, you can feed it straight from the jaryou don’t even have to take it out. You certainly didn’t lose the two gallons, you just have to put it to different uses.

Ivy honey reeks, too, and tastes just as bad as it smells, if not worse. Easy to identify by its physical characteristics, it’s water-white for the short time it’s liquid before crystallizing, and reminds me of cat urine. Bees eat it just fine – heck, they’re the ones that put it in the combs. But it ruins a frame of honey for extraction if there’s some on there with other palatable honey.

My daughter gave me a pint of honey that her husband harvested out of a wall in an old house. It smells like dirty socks, but taste fine. Is it safe to use? I have been afraid to use even though I know honey doesn’t spoil. Help!

Hoping you can calm my fears. I just bought raw, unfiltered honey from amazon. The taste is great. But the odor is awful. It smells like poo. There isn’t any description of the type of honey or flowers, just that it is raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized. Thanks.

Your honey is fine. Honey has natural antimicrobial properties that keeps organisms from living in it. It is complex, but there are four mechanisms that keep it safe: high osmolarity, high acidity, the presence of glucose oxidase (which produces hydrogen peroxide), and various phytochemicals. This is why honey that is hundreds or even thousands of years old (found in tombs) is still safe to eat.

The smell is unrelated to safety. Certain plants produce nectar that smells bad, especially to some people. Plants in the Asteraceae family, for example dandelions, goldenrod, etc., are especially known for this. Some people say the smell dissipates as the honey ages, but I don’t know how long that would take. Just remember that the objectionable smell is coming from the nectar, not from a spoilage agent.

One more thing, the antimicrobial properties remain strongest in honey that is unpasteurized. Heat can destroy some of the properties, so the safest honey is untouched.

I just received a mason jar of natural honey for Christmas from a friend that keeps bees (I don’t know how old it is). Upon opening the jar today, I noticed a sour, nasty sock smell from it. It still tasted sweet despite the smell though. I’m not sure if it was filtered or “refined,” and it’s a lovely deep amber color, it isn’t clear, but its not milky. It is also very thick as well, not syrupy.

Is it safe to eat? I’ve never had honey, both store bought or natural, that smells so bad.

The smell of nasty socks combined with the color makes me think it is honey from goldenrod, or perhaps dandelions. The color, flavor, and aroma of honey is due to the flowers that produced the nectar. Goldenrod is especially known for that particular odor. There is nothing wrong with the honey at all, if just carries that strange smell. Your honey is safe to eat. Even honey that’s moldy or fermenting is safe to eat.

I live in Phoenix Az and took two frames off a hive January 6,2018 and it smells musty and odd. The honey was not as sweet as last October’s harvest. I don’t think we have golden rod around here. We did have a purple saga bloom in November. Not a fan of the taste of this honey. How much hot water per cup of honey can I mix, to make feed for my bees. I do not want my bees to store this honey, just eat or for wax production.

Just estimating, one cup of honey is about 80% sugar and 20% water. That means one cup is 6.4 oz sugar and 1.6 oz water. So to get 1:1 syrup, just add 4.8 more ounces of water to every cup. (4.8 + 1.6 = 6.4) Measure by volume or weight. Either is close.

Or use my method: Stir in water until it looks right. This is also close. In any case, the bees don’t care.

Hello I was given a jar of honey today from a coworker who’s a beekeeper. This is the first time I’ve had honey that I can only describe as smelling like a pig farm (wierd I know, but I know the smell pretty well) and has the same aftertaste. Would you say this is normal and possibly from goldenrod?

I’m glad I came across this website. I have a very strong sour-smelling hive and had assumed the worst. I never heard that goldenrods honey stinks. I thought for sure my hive was infected with American foul brood and I was getting ready to torch it. I’m glad I read this first.

I really dislike the odor of goldenrod honey. However, the few times I’ve harvested honey has not been until the fall since I didn’t feel they had enough earlier in the season. I’ve bottled it up and given it away. Lots of people like it and some really like it.

I’m wondering if some people have more of an ability to smell the distinctive odor than others? Maybe a genetic thing like the odor in one’s pee after eating asparagus? (Pardon me for being a bit gross.) It’s a different smell, but I really dislike that as well.

The odor does not dissipate for me. Perhaps it does for others though. My husband says he got used to it, but it continues to be unpleasant to me.

I’m glad that I have people around who seem to love it so I can give it away!
It’s funny, I’m both proud of my bees and apologetic that the honey has a strong odor and taste. My house painter raves about it.

Hopefully my bees make it through the winter and are productive enough that I can take a few frames at the end of spring. I’m extremely curious to taste spring honey.

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Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

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